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Thursday, 23 August 2012

Rock Tech Lithium to start exploration program at graphite property in Quebec

Rock Tech Lithium (CVE:RCK) said today that an exploration program will start this week on its recently optioned Lochaber graphite property in Quebec.

The exploration plan includes around 35 line-kilometres of ground geophysical survey, field prospecting and limited geological mapping.

The company said the program will be carried out on the Plumbago Mine area, in the southern part of the property.

Based on the results, trenching and drilling will likely start in October, which will aim to confirm the historical exploration work and discover new targets.

The property is considered to be prospective for large flake, crystalline graphite, with a historic record of exploration and production.

Several flake graphite occurrences on the property are some of the oldest graphite showings in Canada, Rock Tech noted, having been discovered in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

There are three historical graphite occurrences, known as McLaren, Kelly and Burke, and two past producing graphite mines - Mayo and Plumbago - distributed over an area covering 16 square kilometres.

The three graphite occurrences have a historic resource estimate of 82,263 tonnes at 8% graphite or 54,091 tonnes at 10% graphite.

"The company believes that the historic estimate is relevant to an appraisal of the merits of the property and forms a reliable basis upon which to develop future exploration programs," it said in a statement, adding that sufficient work has not yet been done to classify the historic resource as current.

In the 1940s, Rock Tech said that a metallurgical test was carried out on a sample from the Kelly showing, with a head grade of 21.17% carbon. According to the miner, after being concentrated by floatation, 34.37% material was coarser than 0.212 millimetre (mm) size and assayed 87% carbon.

Rock Teck inked the option agreement to acquire a 100 per cent interest in the graphite property in May, from UniMera Holding Public Ltd, as it looks to diversify its asset base in advanced technology materials.

The Quebec property consists of 32 mineral claims, covering 19.23 square kilometres in the Buckingham region of Lochaber Township, 45 kilometres to the northeast of Gatineau.

Aside from the new graphite project, the company’s portfolio includes an advanced stage lithium-bearing pegmatite project with an NI 43-101 resource estimate in the Thunder Bay mining district of Ontario, and two early stage lithium-bearing pegmatite projects in northern and western Quebec.